the themes of reality-based surveying and 3D-modelling in the fields of archaeology and cultural heritage. The contents of
this work therefore cover all scientific (and other) aspects of the new 3D technologies in the heritage field, with theoretical
sections, case studies, best practices and considerations.
Fabio Remondino
Stefano Campana
Stefano Campana since 2006 he has been a faculty member of the University of Siena (Italy), in the Department of History
and Cultural Heritage, where he has been engaged in teaching and research as Lecturer in Ancient Topography. He is
specialized in landscape archaeology, remote sensing, GIS and mobile mapping. His work is focused on the understanding
of past landscapes from prehistory to the present day, with particular emphasis on Late Antiquity and the Early Middle
Ages. The principal context for his work has been Tuscany, but he has also participated in, and led research work, in the
UK, Turkey, Palestine, and Turkmenistan. He has been very active in organizing international conferences, summer schools
and has given seminars and lectures at numerous universities including Durham (UK), Berkeley (USA), Stanford (USA), Duke
(USA), Beijing (China), Ghent (Belgium), Saragossa (Spain), and Port-au-Prince (Haiti). In 2011 was proposed and admitted
as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA), and in 2012 he was invited onto the General Management Board
(GMB) of HIST, the Governing Board of the International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage,
under the auspices of UNESCO and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Fabio Remondino received his PhD in Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing in 2006 from ETH Zurich (Switzerland), where
he worked until 2007 as research assistant. Since 2007 he has been based at the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) of Trento
(Italy), where he leads the 3D Optical Metrology (3DOM) research unit. His research interests focus on automated data
processing, sensor characterization and integration, as well as information extraction from image and range data. He has
authored more than 100 scientific publications in journals and peer-review conferences, and he acts as reviewers of many
Geomatics journals. He has organized 20 scientific conferences and 12 summer schools for knowledge and technology
transfer. He is now serving as President of the ISPRS Technical Commission V on Close-range imaging, analysis and
applications, President of the EuroSDR Technical Commission I on Sensors, Primary Data Acquisition and Georeferencing,
and he is a member of the Executive Board of CIPA Heritage Documentation. Of the many projects and heritage sites he
has worked on, particularly memorable have been Pompeii, Paestum, Copan, Etruscan Necropolis, Bamiyan, Machu Picchu,
Jerash, and Angkor Wat.
3D RECORDING AND MODELLING IN ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE: THEORY AND BEST PRACTICES
16/01/2014 11:35:35
Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 3
M. Santana Quintero
1 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND GEOMATIC NEEDS
1.1 3D modeling in archaeology and cultural heritage
Theory and best practice ................................................................................................... 7
S. Campana
1.2 Geomatic and cultural heritage....................................................................................... 13
F. Remondino
1.3 3D modelling and shape analysis in archaeology........................................................... 15
J.A. Barcel
2 LASER/LIDAR
2.1 Airborne laser scanning for archaeological prospection ................................................ 27
R. Bennet
2.2 Terrestrial optical active sensors theory & applications .............................................. 39
G. Guidi
3 PHTOGRAMMETRY
3.1 Photogrammetry: theory ................................................................................................. 65
F. Remondino
3.2 UAV: Platforms, regulations, data acquisition and processing ...................................... 74
F. Remondino
4 REMOTE SENSING
4.1 Exploring archaeological landscapes with satellite imagery .......................................... 91
N. Galiatzatos
5 GIS
5.1 2D GIS vs. 3D GIS theory ........................................................................................... 103
G. Agugiaro
i
ii
b from the optical centre of an image capturing device equipped with a lens
with focal length f; b) evaluation of xA and zA ............................................................. 40
Figure 2. Acquisition of coordinates along a profile generated by a sheet
of laser light. In a 3D laser scanner this profile is mechanically moved
in order to probe an entire area ....................................................................................... 41
Figure 3. Acquisition of coordinates along a different profiles generated by
multiple sheets of white light.......................................................................................... 42
Figure 4. Acquisition of coordinates of the point A through the a priori knowledge
of the angle , and the measurement of the distance through the Time Of Flight
of a light pulse from the sensor to the object and back ................................................... 43
Figure 5. Exemplification of the accuracy and precision concepts. The target has
been used by three different shooters. The shooter A is precise but not
accurate, B is more accurate than A but less precise (more spreading),
C is both accurate and precise ........................................................................................ 46
Figure 6. ICP alignment process: a) selection of corresponding points on two
partially superimposed range maps; b) rough pre-alignment;
c) accurate alignment after a few iterations .................................................................... 48
Figure 7. Mesh generation: a) set of ICP aligned range maps. Different colours
indicate the individual range maps; b) merge of all range maps in a single
polygonal mesh............................................................................................................... 48
Figure 8. Mesh optimization: a) mesh with polygon sizes given by the range
sensor resolution set-up (520,000 triangles); b) mesh simplified in order
to keep the difference with the unsimplified one, below 50 m.
The polygon sizes vary dynamically according to the surface
curvature and the mesh size drops down to 90,000 triangles.......................................... 49
Figure 9. Structure of the G Group of temples in MySon: a) map of the G area drawn
by the archaeologist Parmentier in the early 20th century (Stern, 1942); b) fisheye
image taken from above during the 2011 survey. The ruins of the mandapa (G3)
are visible in the upper part of the image, the posa (G5) on the right, the gopura
(G2) in the center, and the footprint of the holy wall all around .................................... 52
Figure 10. Handmade structures arranged on the field by local workers for
locating the laser scanner in the appropriate positions: a) mounting the
platform on the top of the structure surrounding the Kalan; b) laser
scanner located on the platform at 7 meters above the ruins;
c) multi-section ladder for reaching the platform; d) structure
for elevating the scanner at 3m from ground. During 3D acquisition
the operator lies in the blind cone below the scanner in order
to avoid the laser beam trajectory ................................................................................... 53
Figure 11. Map of the hill where the G Group is located within the My Son Area,
with the scanner positions for acquiring different structures highlighted
by colored dots ............................................................................................................... 54
Figure 12. Sculpted tympanum representing Krishna dancing on the snakes,
originally at the entrance of the kalan: a) 3D laser scanning in the store room
of the museum; b) reality-based model from the 3D data .............................................. 54
Figure 13. High resolution capture of the Foundation stone through SFM:
a) texturized 3D model measured through a sequence of 24 images shot
around the artifact; b) mesh model of the central part of the stone with
a small area highlighted in red; c) color-coded deviations of the SFM
acquired points from a best-fitting plane calculated on the red area
of b), clearly showing a the nearly 2 mm carving on the stone ...................................... 55
Figure 14. Tangential edge error in 3D point clouds: the red points represent
the incorrect data respect to the real ones (black-grey color) ......................................... 56
Figure 15. a) Point cloud model of the Kalan cleaned and aligned in the same
reference system; b) polygonal model of the Kalan with a decimated
and watertight mesh ........................................................................................................ 56
iv
Figure 16. Reality-based models of all ruins in the G group obtained from 3D data
generated by a laser scanner at 1 cm resolution and texturized with the actual
images of the buildings: a) G1, the main temple; b) G2, the entrance portal to
the holy area; c) G3, the assembly hall; d) G4, the south building;
e) G5; the kiosk of the foundation stone ......................................................................... 57
Figure 17. Reality-based models of eight of the 21 decorations found during
the G Group excavations and acquired in the My Son museum. All these
decorations have been acquired with a sampling step between 1 and 2 mm,
and post processed in order to strongly reduce the significant measurement
noise but not the tiniest details of their shapes. The visual representation
in this rendering have been made with a seamless texture ............................................. 58
Figure 18. Virtual reconstruction of the G Group and its surrounding panorama
starting from the reality-based models acquired through laser scanning
and digital images ........................................................................................................... 59
Table 1. Laser scanner configurations planned for 3D data acquisition ............................... 51
Table 2. Number of point clouds acquired at different resolution levels (first three
columns), and total number of 3D points acquired during the whole 3D survey
of the G Group and the related decorations (last column) .............................................. 55
F. Remondino: Photogrammetry: theory
Figure 1. The collinearity principle established between the camera projection
center, a point in the image and the corresponding point in the object
space (left). The multi-image concept, where the 3D object can be
reconstructed using multiple collinearity rays between corresponding
image points (right) ........................................................................................................ 66
Figure 2. A typical terrestrial image network acquired ad-hoc for a camera calibration
procedure, with convergent and rotated images (a). A set of terrestrial images
acquired ad-hoc for a 3D reconstruction purpose (b) ..................................................... 68
Figure 3. Radial (a) and decentering (b) distortion profiles for a digital camera set
at different focal lengths ................................................................................................. 69
Figure 4. 3D reconstruction of architectural structures with manual measurements in
order to generate a simple 3D model with the main geometrical features (a).
Dense 3D reconstruction via automated image matching (b). Digital Surface
Model (DSM) generation from satellite imagery (Geo-Eye stereo-pair) for
3D landscape visualization (c) ........................................................................................ 71
Figure 5. 3D reconstruction from images: according to the project needs
and requirements, sparse or dense point clouds can be derived...................................... 72
Table 1: Photogrammetric procedures for calibration, orientation
and point positioning ...................................................................................................... 68
F. Remondino: UAV: Platforms, regulations, data acquisition and processing
Figure 1. Available Geomatics techniques, sensors and platforms for 3D recording
purposes, according to the scene dimensions and complexity ...................................... 75
Figure 2. Typical acquisition and processing pipeline for UAV images .............................. 77
Figure 3. Different modalities of the flight execution delivering different image
blocks quality: a) manual mode and image acquisition with a scheduled
interval; b) low-cost navigation system with possible waypoints but irregular
image overlap; c) automated flying and acquisition mode achieved with
a high quality navigation system .................................................................................... 78
Figure 4. Orientation results of an aerial block over a flat area of ca 10 km (a).
The derived camera poses are shown in red/green, while color dots are the
3D object points on the ground. The absence of ground constraint (b) can led
to a wrong solution of the computed 3D shape (i.e. ground deformation).
The more rigorous approach, based on GCPs used as observations in the
v
bundle solution (c), deliver the correct 3D shape of the surveyed scene, i.e.
a flat terrain .................................................................................................................... 79
Figure 5. Orientation results of an aerial block over a flat area of ca 10 km (a).
The derived camera poses are shown in red/green, while color dots are the
3D object points on the ground. The absence of ground constraint (b) can led
to a wrong solution of the computed 3D shape (i.e. ground deformation).
The more rigorous approach, based on GCPs used as observations in the
bundle solution (c), deliver the correct 3D shape of the surveyed scene, i.e.
a flat terrain .................................................................................................................... 80
Figure 6. A mosaic view of the excavation area in Pava (Siena, Italy) surveyed
with UAV images for volume excavation computation and GIS applications (a).
The derived DSM shown as shaded (b) and textured mode (c) and the produced
ortho-image (d) [75]. If multi-temporal images are available, DSM differences
can be computed for volume exaction estimation (e) ..................................................... 81
Figure 7. A mosaic over an urban area in Bandung, Indonesia (a). Visualization of
the bundle adjustment results (b) of the large UAV block (ca 270 images) and
a close view of the produced DSM over the urban area, shown as point
cloud (c, d) and shaded mode (e) .................................................................................... 82
Figure 8. Approximate time effort in a typical UAV-based photogrammetric
workflow ........................................................................................................................ 83
Table 1. Evaluation of some UAV platforms employed for Geomatics applications,
according to the literature and the authors experience. The evaluation is
from 1 (low) to 5 (high) .................................................................................................. 76
where decreasing average speeds are represented in dark green, light green,
yellow, orange and red, respectively. The shortest route, considering distance,
connecting all 5 destinations is depicted in blue (bottom left), while the
shortest route, in terms of time, is depicted in violet (bottom right). These
examples are based on the Spearfish dataset available for Grass GIS .......................... 109
Figure 5. Examples of visualization of GIS data. A raster image (orthophoto)
and a vector dataset (building footprints) are visualized in 2D (left).
A 3D visualization of the extruded buildings draped onto the DTM............................ 110
Figure 6. Example of Web-based geodata publication in 3D: by means of virtual
globes, as in Google Earth, or in the case of the Heidelberg 3D project ...................... 111
M. Forte: Virtual reality, cyberarchaeology, teleimmersive archaeology
Figure 1. Digital Hermeneutic Circle ................................................................................. 116
Figure 2. Domains of digital knowledge ............................................................................ 116
Figure 3. 3D-Digging Project at atalhyk ...................................................................... 120
Figure 4. Teleimmersion System in Archaeology (UC Merced, UC Berkeley) ................. 121
Figure 5. Video capturing system for teleimmersive archaeology ..................................... 121
Figure 6. A Teleimmersive work session ........................................................................... 122
Figure 7. Building 77 at atalhyk: the teleimmersive session shows the spatial
integration of shape files (layers, units and artifacts) in the 3D model recorded
by laser scanning .......................................................................................................... 122
Figure 8. 3D Interaction with Wii in the teleimmersive system: building 77,
atalhyk.................................................................................................................... 123
Figure 9. Clouds of points by time of phase scanner (Trimble FX)
at atalhyk: building 77 ........................................................................................... 123
Figure 10. Image modeling of the building 89 at atalhyk ............................................ 124
Figure 11. Image modeling of the building 77 at atalhyk ............................................ 124
Figure 12. 3D layers and microstratigraphy in the teleimmersive system: midden
layers at atalhyk. This area was recorded by optical scanner ................................ 125
Figure 13. Virtual stratigraphy of the building 89, atalhyk: all the layers
recorded by time of phase laser scanner (Trimble FX)................................................. 125
Figure 14. Building 77 reconstructed by image modeling (Photoscan).
In detailhand wall painting and painted calf's head above niche .................................. 125
Figure 15. Building 77 after the removal of the painted calfs head.
The 3D recording by image modeling allows to reconstruct
the entire sequence of decoration ................................................................................. 125
Figure 16. Building 77: all the 3D layers with paintings visualized in transparency ......... 125
Table 1................................................................................................................................ 127
S. Pescarin: Virtual reality & cyberarchaeology virtual museums
Figure 1. The virtual museum of Scrovegni chapel (Padova, IT, 2003-):
the VR installation at the Civic Museum and the cybermap which is
part of the VR application ........................................................................................... 132
Figure 2. Aquae Patavinae VR presented at Archeovirtual 2011 (www.archeovirtual.it):
natural interaction through the web .............................................................................. 133
Figure 3. 3D reconstruction parts of the project Matera: tales of a city
with a view of the same place in different historical periods........................................ 133
Figure 4. Immersive room with Apa stereo movie inside the new museum
of the city of Bologna ................................................................................................... 134
vii
viii
INTRODUCTION
Mario SANTANA QUINTERO
INTRODUCTION
Digitally capturing cultural heritage resources have
become nowadays a common practice. Recording the
physical
characteristics
of
historic
structures,
archaeological sites and landscapes is a cornerstone of
their conservation, whatever it means actively
maintaining them or making a posterity record. The
information produced by such activity potentially would
guide decision-making by property owners, site
managers, public officials, and conservators around the
world, as well as, to present historic knowledge and
values of these resources. Rigorous documentation may
also serve a broader purpose: over time, it becomes the
primary means by which scholars and the public
apprehend a site that has since changed radically or
disappeared.
The rapid rise in new digital technologies has revolutionized the practice of recording heritage places. Digital
tools and media offer a myriad of new opportunities for
collecting, analyzing and disseminating information, with
these new opportunities; there are also conflicts and
constraints, involving fragmentation, longevity and
reliability of information. As well as, the threat of
generating digital representations that might falsify
instead of simplifying the understanding of our heritage.
Furthermore, a record can be used for promotion leading
to participation, increasing the knowledge about a
heritage place. It can be a tool for promoting the
participation of society in its conservation, a tool for
cultural tourism and regional development2.
FINAL REMARKS
References
1. CLARK, Catherine M. 2001. Informed conservation:
Understanding historic buildings and their landscapes
for conservation. London: English Heritage.
Other assessments.
1
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
GEOMATIC NEEDS
All of this has at the moment not come to pass for those
who intend to operate in 3D (or 4D). This represents an
absolutely central problem which lies at the root of many
present-day limits in the diffusion of 3D working. In
particular this very serious lacuna expresses itself most of
all in the absence of 3D analytical instruments and
therefore in the difficulty of extracting original
archaeological information not otherwise identifiable in
2D limiting the contribution of 3D to an increase in the
quality of the documentation and to the successive
elaborations focused on communication. A significant
outcome, though altogether secondary in respect of the
primary capacity which archaeological data ought to be
explained: new archaeological information. As has been
said many times by Maurizio Forte, of the Duke
University in the USA, a fundamental need lies in the
availability for archaeologists of an OPEN-SPACE into
which it is possible to insert data acquired at various
times in the past, stratifying the information and at every
stage measuring and comparing the original observations,
data or stratigraphical relationships but also wherever
possible modifying and updating that data in the light of
new evidence. GIS provides an open working
environment which allows the management, analysis,
data enhancement, processing, visualisation and sharing
of hypothetical interpretations. The first change of
practice that this thought ought to provoke is a move
towards the acquisition and management of 3D data from
the very outset of any research project rather than (as so
often happens) at the end of the cognitive process: we
should no longer find ourselves in the position to hear
people say Now that we have studied everything lets
make a nice reconstruction (Forte 2008). This should
lead to a reversal of the process in which the 3D model
no longer constitutes the end but rather the means of
achieving better understanding through analysis and
simulation. It should also promote the better sharing and
communication of archaeological information, ideas and
concepts, in the first instance amongst our professional
colleagues and then with the public at large.
10
Reference
BATESON, G. 1979. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity
(Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the
Human Sciences). Hampton Press.
BERTOCCI, S.; BINI, M. 2012. Manuale di rilievo
architettonico e urbano, Torino.
BEWLEY, R.H. 2005. Aerial Archaeology. The first
century. Bourgeois J., Meganck M. (Eds.), Aerial
Photography and Archaeology 2003. A century of
information, Academia Press, Ghent, pp. 15-30.
BEWLEY, R.H.; CRUTCHLEY, S.; SHELL, C. 2005. New
light on an ancient landscape: LiDAR survey in the
Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Antiquity, 79 (305),
pp. 636-647.
CASTAGNOLI, F.; SCHMIEDT, G. 1957. Lantica citt di
Norba, in LUniverso, XXXVII, pp. 125-148.
COWLEY, D.C.; OPITZ, R.O. 2012. Interpreting
Archaeological Topography. 3D Data, Visualisation
and Observation, Oxford.
DEVEREUX, B.J.; AMABLE, G.S.; CROW, P.; CLIFF, A.D.
2005. The potential of airborne lidar for detection of
archaeological features under woodland canopies,
Antiquity, 79 (305), pp. 648-660.
1.2 CONCLUSION
Finally, a brief personal reflection on those who
undertake research and the ways in which research can be
pursured. The writer has long been a keen supporter of
the view that technological and methodological research
in archaeology, and in heritage management generally,
should be initiated or at least guided by the desire to
answer essentially historical questions. This implies a
central role for the archaeologist but at the same time
requires him to acquire technical skills so that he can
work closely and productively with engineers, physicists
and other specialist. Every other approach carries with it
the risk of a degenerative drift in research. However, the
experience of the last few years of experimentation in 3D
technology has led him to take a more flexible line,
without in any sense denying the central role of the
archaeologist and of inherently archaeological questions.
That said, he now sees possible value in testing
innovative technologies without necessarily starting from
specific archaeological question rather than from the
desire to see whether such techniques can offer
11
12
13
Figure 2. Existing Geomatics data and sensors according to the working scale
and object/scene to be surveyed
Figure 3. Geomatics techniques for 3D data acquisition, shown according to the object/scene dimensions
and complexity of the reconstructed digital model
14
16
or
MaximumDiameter
MinimumDiameter
4 Area
p
2
4Area
p2
In the equation, p is the perimeter of the contour, and
Area is a measure of the surface of the object. Notice
that formfactor varies with surface irregularities, but
not with overall elongation.
4) Quadrature: The degree of quadrature of a solid,
where 1 is a square and 0.800 an isosceles triangle.
This shape is expressed by:
p
4 Area
In the equation, p is the perimeter of the contour, and
Area is a measure of the surface of the object.
17
3D MODELING
G IN ARCHAEOLO
OGY AND CULTU
URAL HERITAGE
E
Colo
or, brightnesss, hue, are thee most obvio
ously visual
appeearances of anny entity. For too many tim
mes it has beenn
desccribed subjectiively using w
words: green, red,
r
yellow
Now
w, digital photography, esppectometry an
nd specializedd
softw
ware allows a formal quantificatio
on of colorr
inforrmation and its
i relative prroperties. Morre complex iss
the case
c
of Surfacce Micro-topoography. We have
h
already a
vocaabulary of micro-topogra
m
aphic values: coarseness,
roug
ghness, smooothness, poliish, burnish,, bumpiness,
waviness, which are the ressult of micro
o-topographicc
irreg
gularities. Such
S
variatioon is of fundamentall
impo
ortance to discover
d
the past function
n of ancientt
objeects, because the
t surface of solids plays has
h significantt
role in interfaciall phenomena, and its actuaal state is thee
resu
ult of physical forces that haave acted on th
hat surface.
=
Ap
where Vp is volume of
o the object or archaeoloogical
building structure andd Ap is the suurface area of the
object. The
T sphericityy of a sphere is 1 and, byy the
isoperimeetric inequalitty, any particcle which is not
n a
sphere wiill have spheriicity less thann 1.
To represent
r
micrro-variation thhe only we haave to do is too
indiccate the relatiive positions aand elevations of surfacess
poin
nts with diffferential inteerfacial contrribution. Thee
resolution of moddern range scaanners is enou
ugh to be ablee
to measure
m
tiny details
d
of com
mplex micro-sttructures, andd
meaasuring depth and heigth at well localized pointss
with
hin the surfacce, allowing uus to measuree their spatiall
variaability A moddern laser scaanner capturess surface dataa
poin
nts less than 50 micronss (0,05 mm), apart from
m
prod
ducing high-deensity trianguular meshes wiith an averagee
resolution of overr 1000 points pper cm2.
As in
i the case off form, we do not have en
nough with a
simp
ple spatial innvariant meaasurement of heights andd
deptths at the miicro-level of a single surfface. Modernn
research in surfaace analysis, notably in geometry
g
andd
mateerial science have propoosed dozens of suitablee
paraameters of texture, like aaverage rough
hness, texturee
aspeect, texture direction, ssurface material volume,,
auto
ocorrelation, avverage peak-tto-valeyy, etc.
Alth
hough archaeoology has beeen traditionallly consideredd
as a quintessentiaally visual discipline (Shelley 1996),,
we need
n
also nonn-visual featuures to characterize ancientt
objeects and materials (i.e., com
mpositional data
d
based onn
mass spectromeetry, chronological dataa based onn
radio
oactive decayy measures, ettc.). Once we include non-visu
ual data we would have the initial elements forr
analysis of the recordedd
begiinning true explanatory
e
arch
haeological eleements.
Why
y archaeologiical artifacts are the way they are? A
posssible answer to this quesstion would be: becausee
objeects have a disstinctive appearance for thee sake of theirr
prop
per functioningg. This functtion would be distinguishedd
from
m other non-ffunctional (or accidental)) uses by thee
2D Profile
parameter
Amplitude
Height
Amplitude
Height
Ssk: skewness
Amplitude
Shape
Sku: kurtosis
Amplitude
Shape
Amplitude
Height
Amplitude
Area Spacing
Spatial
Other
parameters
Spatial
Spatial
Other
parameters
Hybrid
Other
parameters
Hybrid
Other
parameters
Evaluated for each summit and then averaged over the area.
Based on a summit.
Hybrid
Hybrid
Functional
Index family
(*1)
Functional
Index family
(*1)
Functional
Index family
(*1)
Functional
Volume
family (*1)
Functional
Volume
family (*1)
Functional
Volume
family (*1)
??
19
Other
Parameters
??
Other
Parameters
Other
Parameters
Area autocorrelation
function, AACF
area waviness height,
SWt
Waviness
Other
Parameters
average peak-to-valley
roughness R and others
Additional
Parameters
for Surface
Characterizati
on (*2)
average spacing of
roughness peaks AR
Additional
Parameters
for Surface
Characterizati
on (*2)
swedish height of
irregularities
(profiljup), R or H
Is the distance between two lines parallel and equal in length to the mean
line and located such that 5% of the upper line and 90% of the lower line
are contained within the material side of the roughness profile.
Additional
Parameters
for Surface
Characterizati
on(*2)
fact that the features that define the solid nature of the
object owe its existence to this particular use. In other
words, a single ancient pot, axe, weapon, jewel, burial or
house found at the archaeological site is assumed to be
like it is because it performed some particular action or
behaviour in the past. The object was made to do
something in a particular way, and the goal it had to
fulfill could only be attained when the artifact got some
determinate properties. A function is taken as an activity,
which can be performed by an object. The objects
activity is in fact its operating mode; more generally it
can be seen as an object behaviour specification.
Only the first category is the consequence of using rangescanning and similar technology. This list suggests that
reasoning about the functionality of archaeological
objects recovered at the archaeological site requires a
cross-disciplinary investigation ranging from recognition
techniques used in computer vision and robotics to
reasoning, representation, and learning methods in
artificial intelligence. To review previous work on
approaches relevant to tool use and reasoning about
functionality, we can divide current approaches in two
main categories: systems that interact with objects and
environments, and systems that do not.
21
CONCLUSIONS
22
23
2
LASER/LIDAR
LASER/LIDAR
2.1.1 INTRODUCTION
The adoption of airborne laser scanning (ALS) for
archaeological landscape survey over the last decade has
been a revolution in prospection that some have likened
to the inception of aerial photography a century ago.
Commonly referred to as LiDaR (Light Detection and
Ranging)1, this survey technique records high resolution
height data that can be modelled in a number of ways to
represent the macro and micro topography of a landscape.
Arguably the most exciting aspect of this technique is the
ability to remove vegetation to visualise the ground
surface beneath a tree canopy (Crow et al., 2007; Crow,
2009), but its value has also been shown in open
landscapes and as a key component of multi-sensor
survey (Bennett et al., 2011, 2012).
27
The initial processing steps for ALS data are most often
done by the data supplier but are worth mentioning
28
LASER/LIDAR
Figure 4. An example of orange peel patterning caused by uncorrected point heights at the edges of swaths.
The overlay demonstrates uncorrected data which in the red overlap zones appears speckled
and uneven compared with the same areas in the corrected (underlying) model
29
For full waveform data, the echo width and amplitude can
be used to improve the classification and filtering process
30
LASER/LIDAR
Figure 6. Two examples of common interpolation techniques: IDW (left) and Bicubic Spline (right)
31
32
LASER/LIDAR
33
34
LASER/LIDAR
35
36
LASER/LIDAR
2.1.7 CONCLUSIONS
Through the course of this chapter a number of key
factors to consider when using ALS data for historic
environment assessment have already been raised. Users
must be aware of issues such as mode of capture,
resolution and pre-processing of the ALS data, all of
which should be made clear by the provision of adequate
metadata by the data supplier. Attention should be given
to the original purpose of the data, usually hydrological
or environmental monitoring, and any filtering that has
been undertaken and how this might affect the representtation of archaeological features. This is not to say that
archive data collected for other purposes is not useful to
archaeologists, (the ever-increasing number of studies
testify this is clearly not the case) rather that users of the
data should familiarise themselves with the technical
details and make clear the processing applied to a dataset.
References
AXELSSON, Peter 2000. DEM Generation from Laser
Scanner Data Using Adaptive TIN Models. ISPRS
37
WINTERBOTTOM, S.J.; DAWSON, T. 2005. Airborne multispectral prospection for buried archaeology in mobile
sand dominated systems. Archaeological Prospection
12, pp. 205-219.
38
LASER/LIDAR
2.2.1 INTRODUCTION
Principle
The kind of light that first allowed to create a 3D scanner
is the laser light. Due to its physical properties it allows
39
tan
p
f
40
LASER/LIDAR
zA
b
tan tan
41
Figure 3. Acquisition of coordinates along a different profiles generated by multiple sheets of white light
Principles
Active TOF range sensing is logically derived from the
so-called total station. This is made by a theodolite,
namely an optical targeting device for aiming at a specific
point in space, coupled with a goniometer for precisely
measuring horizontal and vertical orientations, integrated
with an electronic distance meter. TOF, or time of flight,
is referred to the method used for estimating the sensorto-target distance, that is usually done by measuring the
time needed by light for travelling from the light source
to the target surface and back to the light detector
integrated in the electronic distance meter.
x A sin
zA cos
In case of a real 3D situation, in addition to the vertical
angle an horizontal angle will be given, and the set of
coordinate (xA, yA, zA) will be obtained by a simple
42
LASER/LIDAR
Figure 4. Acquisition of coordinates of the point A through the a priori knowledge of the angle , and the
measurement of the distance through the Time Of Flight of a light pulse from the sensor to the object and back
An interesting sensor fusion is given by the RangeImaging (RIM) cameras which integrate distance
measurements (based on the TOF principle) and imaging
aspects. RIM sensors are not treated in this chapter as not
really suitable for 3D modeling applications.
TOF c
2
Therefore a small deviation in estimating TOF, for example in the order of 20 ps, will give a corresponding range
deviation r=1/2 x (20 x 10-12) x (3 x 108) m = 3 mm.
For some recent models of laser scanner based on this
principle (Riegel, 2010), the device is capable to detect
multiple reflected pulses by a single transmitted pulse,
provided by situations where multiple targets are present
on the laser trajectory (e.g. a wall behind tree leaves). In
this case the cloud of points is not anymore a 2.5D entity.
43
sTX cos( 0 t)
and the signal generated by re-converting in electrical
form the light backscattered by the surface and received
by the range sensor:
sRX cos( 0 t )
A CW laser scanner implement an electronic mixing the
two signals, that corresponds to a multiplication of these
two contributions. It can be reduced as follows:
1
1
cos( 0 t) cos( 0 t ) cos(2 0 t ) cos( )
2
2
The result is a contribution at double the modulating
frequency, that can be cut through a low-pass filter, and a
continuous contribution, directly proportional to phase
difference , that can be estimated. Since this angular
value is directly proportional to the TOF, from this value
the range can be evaluated similarly to the previous case.
This indirect estimation of TOF allows a better
performance in term of uncertainty for two main reasons:
a) since the light sent to the target is continuous, much
more energy can be transmitted respect to the PW case,
and the consequent signal-to-noise ratio of the received
signal is higher; b) the low-passing filtering required for
extracting the useful signal component involves a cut also
on the high frequency noise, resulting in a further
decrease of noise respect to signal.
44
LASER/LIDAR
Resolution
According to VIM, resolution is the smallest change in a
quantity being measured that causes a perceptible change
in the corresponding indication. This definition, once
referred to non-contact 3D imaging, is intended as the
minimum geometrical detail that the range device is
capable to capture. This is influenced by the device
mechanical, optical and electronic features. Of course
such value represents the maximum resolution allowed by
the 3D sensor. For its 3D nature it can be divided in two
components: the axial resolution, along the optical axis of
the device (usually indicated as z), and the lateral
resolution, on the xy plane (MacKinnon et al., 2008).
Trueness (accuracy)
VIM definition indicates accuracy in general as
closeness of agreement between a measured quantity
value and a true quantity value of a measurand. When
such theoretical entity has to be evaluated for an actual
instrument, including a 3D sensor, such value has to be
experimentally estimated from the instrument output. For
this reason VIM also define trueness as closeness of
agreement between the average of an infinite number of
replicate measured quantity values and a reference
quantity value. It is a more practical parameter that can
be numerically estimated as the difference between a 3D
value assumed as true (because measured with a method
far more accurate), and the average of a sufficiently large
number of samples acquired through the range device to
be characterized. Such parameter refers therefore to the
systematic component of the measurement error with
respect to the real data (exemplified in fig. 5) and can be
minimized through an appropriate sensor calibration. For
3D sensors, accuracy might be evaluated both for the
axial direction (z) than for a lateral one (on the xy plane).
In general, accuracy on depth is the most important, and
varies from few hundredths to few tenths of a millimetre
for triangulation based sensors and FM-CW laser
scanners, it is in the order of 1-2 mm for CW laser
scanners, and in the order of 2-20 mm for PW laser
scanners.
Uncertainty (precision)
Precision is the closeness of agreement between
indications or measured quantity values obtained by
replicate measurements on the same or similar objects
under specified conditions (JCGM, 2008). A practical
value for estimating such agreement is to calculate the
dispersion of the quantity values being attributed to a
measurand through the standard deviation of the
measured values respect to their average (or a multiple of
it), defined by VIM as uncertainty (fig. 5).
As accuracy is influenced by systematic errors, precision
is mostly influenced by random errors, leading to a
certain level of unpredictability of the measured value,
due to thermal noise in the sensors detector, and, in case
of laser based devices, by the typical laser speckle effect
(Baribeau & Rioux 1991).
45
46
LASER/LIDAR
Point-clouds alignment
In general each range map acquired from a specific
position is given in a coordinate system with the origin
located into the range sensor.
Taking range data of a scene or object from different
points of view means gathering 3D data representing the
same geometry by different reference systems whose
mutual orientation is generally unknown. For such reason
it is necessary to align all 3D data into the same
coordinate system. The process can be achieved in three
different ways.
Once the first two range maps of a set are aligned, ICP
can be applied to other adjacent point clouds up the full
coverage of the surface of interest. This progressive pairwise alignment may lead to a considerable error
propagation, clearly noticeable on closed surfaces when
the first range map has to be connected with the last one.
For this reason global versions of ICP have been
conceived, where the orientation of each range map is
optimized respect to all neighbour range maps (Gagnon et
al., 1994).
Figure 6. ICP alignment process: a) selection of corresponding points on two partially superimposed
range maps; b) rough pre-alignment; c) accurate alignment after a few iterations
b
Figure 7. Mesh generation: a) set of ICP aligned
range maps. Different colours indicate the
individual range maps; b) merge of all
range maps in a single polygonal mesh
LASER/LIDAR
b
Figure 8. Mesh optimization: a) mesh with polygon
sizes given by the range sensor resolution set-up
(520,000 triangles); b) mesh simplified in order to
keep the difference with the unsimplified one,
below 50 m. The polygon sizes vary dynamically
according to the surface curvature and the mesh
size drops down to 90,000 triangles
purposes. In case of large and complex model the pointbased rendering technique does not give satisfactory
results and does not provide realistic visualization. The
visualization of a 3D model is often the only product of
interest for the external world, remaining the only
possible contact with the 3D data. Therefore a realistic
and accurate visualization is often required. Furthermore
the ability to easily interact with a huge 3D model is a
continuing and increasing problem. Indeed model sizes
(both in geometry and texture) are increasing at faster rate
than computer hardware advances and this limits the
possibilities of interactive and real-time visualization of
the 3D results. Due to the generally large amount of data
and its complexity, the rendering of large 3D models is
done with multi-resolution approaches displaying the
large meshes with different Levels of Detail (LOD),
simplification and optimization approaches (Dietrich et
al., 2007).
50
LASER/LIDAR
Scan Scale
Planning
As known several factors may affect the quality of 3D
data acquired by a range device. Equipment choices,
logistics and environmental conditions such as
temperature and humidity has to be considered in a
survey planning, especially when operating in the middle
of a forest, like in this specific case. An accurate
evaluation of such factors allows optimizing the 3D
acquisition, minimizing possible problems that can occur
during the survey. Logistics and weather conditions
become crucial specially if the survey project has to be
planned abroad, with no possibility to travel back and
forth to the lab, and little or no possibility to lose
operating days for possible logistic delays (such as for
example days or weeks lost for custom controls, typical
when instrumentation is sent trough a courier), or on the
field, due to bad climate conditions.
Operating
Sampling step
Distance
Qualitative Quantitative (mm)
(m)
Framework
8-16
Coarse
7-60
Architecture
4-8
Medium
4-15
High
1-2
Details
3D MODELING
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Figurre 9. Structure of the G Grouup of templess in MySon: a)) map of the G area drawn bby the archaeo
ologist
Parm
mentier in thee early 20th ceentury (Stern, 1942); b) fish
heye image takken from abovve during the 2011
2
survey. The ruuins of the maandapa (G3) are
a visible in the
t upper part of the image, the posa (G5)
on the rigght, the gopuraa (G2) in the center,
c
and thee footprint of the
t holy wall all around
acquisition campaign
c
of the other diffferent monum
ments
was carried out, aligninng and creatiing self-consiistent
point clouds models. Finaally those dataa were alignedd in a
common reeference sysstem using the DTM raw
representatioons of the builddings.
Three-dimen
nsional data acquisition
The survey of
o G Area reggarded both thhe 3D geomettrical
acquisition of
o five different architecturres with assocciated
findings andd the 2D imaage acquisitioon for texturee and
environment documentatioon.
In this phasee a dedicated 3D
3 acquisitionn of the upperr part
of the Kalann was carriedd out, in ordeer to scan alll the
hidden area of this compllex geometry.. The scannerr was
positioned att 7 meters from
m ground in the
t four corneers of
the iron structure coveringg the Templee, acquiring 4 high
resolution scans
s
of the whole archhitecture andd the
surrounding DTM area (poositioning shoown in fig. 10bb).
A long sequuence of architectonic acquuisitions was then
carried out around the building andd integrated with
detailed ones for capturinng the decoraated basementt. To
avoid the shaadow effects generated
g
from
m the basemennt, an
additional seequence of 3 meters
m
height scans was caarried
out (positionning shown inn fig. 10d). Locating
L
the laser
scanner in thhe needed poosition aroundd the main teemple
(i.e. the talleer ruin of the group), was a crucial poinnt for
avoiding lackks in the final survey.
LASER/L
L
IDAR
R
b
a
c
Figuure 10. Handm
made structurees arranged onn the field by local
l
workers for locating thhe laser scann
ner in
the appropriate positions:
p
a) mounting
m
the platform
p
on the top of the sttructure surrouunding the Kaalan;
b) laaser scanner loocated on the platform
p
at 7 meters
m
above the ruins; c) multi-section
m
lladder for reacching
the platform;; d) structure for
f elevating the
t scanner at 3m from grouund. During 3D acquisition
n
the operator lies
l in the blinnd cone below
w the scanner in
n order to avooid the laser beeam trajectory
y
An overview
o
of the
t laser scannner resolution
n settings andd
the point cloudss actually accquired is sh
hown in thee
follo
owing table 2.
A ph
hotographic caampaign was also carried out
o in additionn
to th
he laser scan survey.
s
It wass devoted to th
he acquisitionn
of:
1. architectonic
a
images
foor
texturing
g
projectionn
purposes;
p
2. detailed
d
imagees for the creeation of seam
mless materiall
pictures;
p
53
3D MODELING
G IN ARCHAEOLO
OGY AND CULTU
URAL HERITAGE
E
Figure 111. Map of the hill where thee G Group is located withinn the My Son A
Area, with
the scannner positionss for acquiringg different stru
uctures highligghted by colored dots
room of
o the museum
m; b) reality-based model frrom the 3D daata
4. few
f
image seets taken aroound four mo
onuments forr
experimenting
e
g
techniques.
t
54
Structure
From
Mo
otion
(SFM))
LASER/LIDAR
Table 2. Number of point clouds acquired at different resolution levels (first three columns), and total number of
3D points acquired during the whole 3D survey of the G Group and the related decorations (last column)
Resolution
Coarse
Medium
High
# points
(x 106)
G1 (Kalan)
43
22
126
G2 (Portal)
21
G3 (Assembly hall)
15
G4 (South building)
13
31
DTM
49
27
21 Finds
60
Total
56
79
86
226
Figure 13. High resolution capture of the Foundation stone through SFM: a) texturized 3D model measured through
a sequence of 24 images shot around the artifact; b) mesh model of the central part of the stone with a small area
highlighted in red; c) color-coded deviations of the SFM acquired points from a best-fitting plane calculated
on the red area of b), clearly showing a the nearly 2 mm carving on the stone
Each sub-cloud was then meshed. The resulting highresolution polygonal models presented both several
topological errors, due to residual errors survived to the
cleaning phase, and a considerable number of lacking
mesh portions, due to occlusions originated by the
complex geometries involved. All these lacks were closed
with a manual identification process, choosing the best
closing algorithm for each situation. This was needed for
the different characteristics of the lacks in terms of size,
position within the model (flat plane, edge, corner, etc.)
and polygonal complexity of the borders. An automatic or
semi-automatic approach would have risked to neglect
these differences, generating not reliable mesh portions in
the reality-based model. As a consequence such process
was very long for irregular structures as the most ruined
buildings.
56
LASER/L
L
IDAR
R
b
a
c
d
e
Figure 16. Reality-based
R
m
models
of all ruins in the G group obtain
ned from 3D data
d generated by a laser scaanner at 1 cm
resolution and
a texturized with the actuual images of the
t buildings: a) G1, the maain temple; b) G2, the entran
nce portal to
the hooly area; c) G33, the assemblly hall; d) G4,, the south buiilding; e) G5; the kiosk of tthe foundation
n stone
3D MODELING
G IN ARCHAEOLO
OGY AND CULTU
URAL HERITAGE
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s
associaated to the alig
gned cloud off
same coordinate system
poin
nt originated by the laserr scanning. The
T
resultingg
scen
ne was then used
u
for showing the area to
t the visitorss
of th
he archaeologgical area throough an anim
mation. In thee
follo
owing figure 18 a frame off such animatiion shows thee
richn
ness of visuaal informationn associated to
t this digitall
artiffact that, in thhe mean timee, contains a rich level off
detaailed and metriic geometricall information..
2.2.8
8 CONCLUS
SIONS
Thiss chapter repoorted an overrview of the actual
a
opticall
3D measuremennts sensors aand techniqu
ues used forr
terreestrial 3D moddelling and a practical appllication of 3D
D
acqu
uisition in an archaeologica
a
al area. The laast 15 years off
appllications madee clear that reeality-based 3D models aree
very
y useful in many
m
fields bbut the relateed processingg
pipeeline is still far
f from beinng optimal, with
w
possiblee
imprrovements andd open researcch issues in many
m
steps.
58
LASER/L
L
IDAR
R
deveeloped, no sim
mple tools suiitable for non
n-expert userss
are available
a
yet.
knowledgmen
nts
Ack
ABD
DEL-AZIZ, Y.I. & KARARA, H.M. 1971. Direct linearr
trans-formatio
t
on from com
mparator coordinates intoo
object
o
space coordinates iin close-rangee photogram-metry,
m
Proc. of the Sym
mposium on Close-Rangee
Photogramme
P
etry, Falls Chuurch (VA) USA
A, pp. 1-18.
AGA
ARWAL, S.; SNAVELY, N
N.; SIMON, I..; SEITZ, S.;;
SZELINSKI, R.
R 2009. Buuilding Romee in a Day,,
Proceedings
P
of the IE
EEE 12th International.
I
Conference
C
onn Computer V
Vision, pp. 72-7
79.
59
LASER/LIDAR
LI, J.; GUO, Y.; ZHU, J.; LIN X.; XIN Y.; DUAN K. & TANG
Q. 2007. Large depth of view portable three
dimensional laser scanner and its segmental
calibration for robot vision, Optics and Laser in
Engineering, Vol. 45, pp. 1077-1087.
STAMOS, I.; LIU, L.; CHEN, C.; WOLBERG, G.; YU, G.;
ZOKAI, S. 2008. Integrating automated range
registration with multiview geometry for the
photorealistic modelling of large-scale scenes. Int. J.
Comput. Vis., Vol. 78, pp. 237-260.
62
3
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
3.1.2 PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Photogrammetry (Mikhail et al., 2001; Luhmann et al.,
2007) is the most well-known and important image-based
technique which allow the derivation of accurate, metric
and semantic information from photographs (images).
Photogrammetry thus turns 2D image data into 3D data
(like digital 3D models) rigorously establishing the
geometric relationship between the acquired images and
the scene as surveyed at the time of the imaging event.
Photogrammetry can be done using underwater,
terrestrial, aerial or satellite imaging sensors. Generally
the term Remote Sensing is more associated to satellite
imagery (see chapter XXX) and their use for land
classification and analysis or changes detection (i.e. no
geometric processing). The photogrammetric method
3D MODELING
G IN ARCHAEOLO
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Figurre 1. The collinnearity principple establishedd between thee camera projeection center, a point in the image
and thee correspondinng point in the object spacee (left). The multi-image
m
cooncept, where the 3D objectt can be
reconstructted using multtiple collinearrity rays betweeen corresponnding image pooints (right)
accu
urate and phhoto-realistic documentatio
on (geometryy
and texture); (ii) photogrammetric instrumeents (camerass
and software) aree generally chheap, very porrtable, easy too
use and with veryy high accuraccy potentials; (iii) an objectt
can be reconstruucted even iif it has disappeared orr
conssiderably channged using aarchived imag
ges (Gruen ett
al., 2004). But large
l
experience is requirred to derivee
accu
urate and detaailed 3D moddels from imaages. This hass
limitted a lot the use
u of photoggrammetry in favour of thee
more powerful active
a
3D sennsors (see ch
hapter XXX),,
whicch allow easily the derivattion of densee and detailedd
3D point
p
clouds with
w no user prrocessing.
generally em
mploys minim
mum two imaages of the same
static scene or object acqquired from different
d
poinnts of
view. Similaar to human vision,
v
if an object
o
is seen in at
least two im
mages, the diffferent relative positions of
o the
object in thee images (thee so-called paarallaxes) alloows a
stereoscopic view and the derivation of 3D informatioon of
the scene seeen in the overllapping area of
o the images.
Photogramm
metry is used inn many fields, from the tradditional mapping, to structure monitoring and
a 3D city modem
lling, from thhe video gam
mes movie inddustry to induustrial
inspections, from heritagee documentatiion to the meedical
field. Photoggrammetry waas always connsidered a maanual
and time coonsuming procedure but inn the last deccade,
thanks to thhe developmennts achieved by the Compputer
Vision comm
munity, great improvementts have been done
and nowadaays many fuully automated proceduress are
available. When
W
the projeects goal is the recovery of a
complete, deetailed, precise and reliablee 3D model, some
s
user interacction in the modelling pipeline is still
mandatory, in
i particular for
f geo-refereencing and quuality
control. Thuus photogramm
metry does not
n aim at thee full
automation of
o the image processing
p
buut it has alwayys as
first goal thee recovery of metric and acccurate resultss. On
the other hannd, for appliccations needinng 3D modells for
simple visuaalization or Virtual
V
Realityy (VR) uses, fully
automated 3D
D modelling procedures
p
caan also be adoopted
(Vergauwen & Van Gool, 2006; Snavelly et al., 2008)).
3.1.3
3 BASIC PR
RINCIPLES O
OF THE
PHOTOGR
RAMMETRIIC TECHNIQ
QUE
The basic principple of the phottogrammetric processing iss
the use of multiple images (at least tw
wo) and thee
ple establishess
colliinearity princiiple (Fig. 1). Such princip
the relationship
r
between imagee and object space definingg
a strraight line bettween the cam
mera perspective center, thee
imag
ge point P(x, y) and the obbject point P(X
X, Y, Z). Thee
colliinearity model is formulatedd as:
x f
(1)
r ( X X 0 ) r22 (Y Y0 ) r32 ( Z Z0 )
y f 12
y0
r13 ( X X 0 ) r23 (Y Y0 ) r33 ( Z Z0 )
cam
mera constant or
o focal lengthh
x0, y0
X 0 , Y 0 , Z0
elem
ments of the rootation matrix
x, y
2D image
i
coordinnates (tie poinnts)
X, Y, Z
3D object
o
coordinnates
with
h:
66
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
e A x l
(2)
with
e = error vector;
A = design matrix n x m (number of observations x
number of unknowns, n>m) with the coefficients
of the linearized collinearity equations;
x = unknowns vector (exterior parameters, 3D object
coordinates, eventually interior parameters);
l = observation vector (i.e. the measurements).
Generally a weight matrix P is added in order to weight
the observations and unknown parameters during the
estimation procedure. The estimation of x and the
variance factor is usually (but not exclusively)
attempted as unbiased, minimum variance estimation,
performed by means of least squares and results in:
x ( A T PA ) 1 A T Pl
XYZ
(3)
v T Pv
r
(6)
v A x l
qS xy
(4)
(5)
3D MODELING
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Observations
Unknow
wns
Resection
Intersection
3D coorrdinates
3.1.5
5 GEOMETR
RIC CAMER
RA CALIBRA
ATION
TAL CAMER
RA CALIBRA
ATION AND
D
3.1.4 DIGIT
IMAG
GE ORIENTA
ATION
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
(7)
(8)
with:
x x x0 ;
y y y0 ;
r2 x2 y 2 ;
Browns model is generally called physical model as
all its components can be directly attributed to physical
error sources. The individual parameters represent:
x0, y0, f = correction for the interior orientation
elements;
Ki = parameters of radial lens distortion;
Pi = parameters of decentering distortion;
Sx = scale factor in x to compensate for possible nonsquare pixel;
a = shear factor for non-orthogonality and geometric
deformation of the pixel.
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Y
c
Figuure 4. 3D recoonstruction off architectural structures witth manual meaasurements inn order to geneerate
a simple 3D moodel with the main
m geometrrical features (a).
( Dense 3D reconstructioon via automatted
image matching
m
(b). Digital
D
Surfacee Model (DSM
M) generationn from satellitee imagery
(Geo-Eyye stereo-pairr) for 3D landsscape visualizzation (c)
textu
uring of 3D point cloudds (point-based renderingg
tech
hniques (Kobbbelt & Botscch, 2004) alllows a fasterr
visu
ualization, but for detailed aand complex 3D models itt
is no
ot an appropriiate method. IIn case of meeshed data thee
textu
ure is automattically mappeed if the camera parameterss
are known
k
(e.g. iff it is a photoogrammetric model
m
and thee
imag
ges are orienteed) otherwise an interactivee procedure iss
requ
uired (e.g. if thhe model has bbeen generateed using rangee
senssors and the texture
t
comess from a sepaarate imagingg
senssor). Indeed homologue
h
pooints between the 3D meshh
and the 2D imagge to-be-mappped should bee identified inn
ordeer to find the alignment trransformation necessary too
map
p the colour information onto the mesh. Althoughh
3.1.9 TEXT
TURE MAPPIING AND VIISUALIZATIION
A polygonall 3D model can
c be visualiized in wirefrrame,
shaded or texxtured mode. A textured 3D
D geometric model
m
is probably the
t most desiirable 3D objeect documenttation
by most sincce it gives, at the same timee, a full geom
metric
and appearaance represenntation and alllows unrestrricted
interactive visualization and
a manipulation at a varieety of
lighting condditions. The photo-realistic
p
c representatioon of
a polygonal model (or evven a point cloud)
c
is achiieved
mapping a colour
c
imagess onto the 3D
D geometric data.
The 3D data can be in forrm of points or
o triangles (m
mesh),
according too the applicaations and requirements.
The
r
71
3D MODELING
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73
3.2.1 INTRODUCTION
According to the UVS (Unmanned Vehicle System)
International definition, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) is a generic aircraft design to operate with no
human pilot onboard [1]. The simple term UAV is used
commonly in the Geomatics community, but also other
terms like Drone, Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV),
Remotely Operated Aircraft (ROA), Micro Aerial
Vehicles (MAV), Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle
(UCAV), Small UAV (SUAV), Low Altitude Deep
Penetration (LADP) UAV, Low Altitude Long Endurance
(LALE) UAV, Medium Altitude Long Endurance
(MALE) UAV, Remote Controlled (RC) Helicopter and
Model Helicopter are often used, according to their
propulsion system, altitude/endurance and the level of
automation in the flight execution. The term UAS
(Unmanned Aerial System) comprehends the whole
system composed by the aerial vehicle/platform (UAV)
and the Ground Control Station (GCS). [2] defines UAVs
as Uninhabited Air Vehicles while [3] defines UAVs as
uninhabited and reusable motorized aerial vehicles.
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Figure 1. Available Geomatics techniques, sensors and platforms for 3D recording purposes,
according to the scene dimensions and complexity
75
Table 1. Evaluation of some UAV platforms employed for Geomatics applications, according to the literature
and the authors experience. The evaluation is from 1 (low) to 5 (high)
Fixed Wing
Rotary wings
Kite /
Balloon
electric
ICE engine
electric
ICE engine
Payload
Wind resistance
Minimum speed
Flying autonomy
Portability
Landing distance
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
The flight is normally done in manual, assisted or autonomous mode, according to the mission specifications,
platforms type and environmental conditions. The
presence onboard of GNSS/INS navigation devices is
usually exploited for the autonomous flight (take-off,
navigation and landing) and to guide the image
acquisition. The image network quality is strongly
influenced by the typology of the performed flight (Fig.
3): in the manual mode, the image overlap and the
geometry of acquisition is usually very irregular, while
the presence of GNSS/INS devices, together with a
navigation system, can guide and improve the acquisition.
The navigation system, generally called auto-pilot, is
composed by both hardware (often in a miniaturize form)
and software devices. An auto-pilot allows to perform a
flight according the planning and communicate with the
platform during the mission. The small size and the
reduced pay-load of some UAV platforms is limiting the
transportation of high quality navigation devices like
those coupled to airborne cameras or LiDAR sensors. The
cheapest solution relies on MEMS-based inertial sensors
Figure 3. Different modalities of the flight execution delivering different image blocks quality: a) manual mode and
image acquisition with a scheduled interval; b) low-cost navigation system with possible waypoints but irregular
image overlap; c) automated flying and acquisition mode achieved with a high quality navigation system
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Y
bjects surfacee
extraact dense point clouds to ddefine the obj
and its main geeometric discontinuities. Therefore
T
thee
poin
nt density musst be adaptiveely tuned to preserve edgess
and,, possibly, avooid too many points in flatt areas. At thee
same time, a corrrect matching result must be
b guaranteedd
also in regions wiith poor texturres. The actuaal state-of-the-art is
i the multi-im
mage matchinng technique [67-69]
[
basedd
on semi-global
s
m
matching
algorrithms [70-71]], patch-basedd
meth
hods [72] or optimal flow
w algorithms [73].
[
The lastt
two methods hass been impleemented into open sourcee
pack
kages named, respectively, PMVS and MicMac.
M
3.2.6
6 CASE STU
UDIES
As already menntioned, imagges acquired flying UAV
V
platfforms give useful infformation for
f
differentt
appllications, succh as archaaeological do
ocumentation,,
geollogical studiess and monitooring, urban area
a
modelingg
and monitoring, emergency asssessment and
d so on. Thee
typiccal required products aare dense point
p
clouds,,
poly
ygonal modelss or orthoimaages which are
a afterwardss
used
d for mappinng, volume ccomputation, displacementt
anallyses, visualizzation, city m
modeling, map
p generation,,
etc.. In the folloowing sectionns an overviiew of somee
appllications is givven and the aachieved resullts are shown..
The data presentted in the folllowing case studies weree
acqu
uired by the authors
a
or by some projectt partners andd
they
y were processsed by the auuthors using th
he Apero [53]]
a orthoimage generation
n
Surface recoonstruction and
Once a set of
o images haas been orientted, the folloowing
steps in the 3D reconstruuction and modeling
m
workkflow
are the surfface measurem
ment, orthophhoto creationn and
feature extraction. Startiing from thee known caamera
orientation parameters, a scene can
c
be digitally
reconstructedd by means of interactivve procedurees or
automated deense image matching
m
technniques. The ouutput
is normally a sparse or a dense
d
point clooud, describinng the
salient corneers and featuures in the foormer case orr the
entire surfaces shape of the
t surveyed scene in the latter
case. Dense image
i
matchiing algorithmss should be abble to
79
3D MODELING
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d
e
Figure 5. Orrientation resuults of an aeriaal block over a flat area of ca
c 10 km (a). The derived ccamera poses are
a shown in
red/green, while color dots are the 3D
D object pointss on the groun
nd. The absencce of ground cconstraint (b) can led to a
wrong sollution of the computed
c
3D shape (i.e. groound deformattion). The moore rigorous appproach, based
d on GCPs
used as obbservations in the bundle soolution (c), delliver the correect 3D shape of
o the surveyedd scene, i.e. a flat terrain
80
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Y
c
d
e
Figgure 6. A mosaaic view of thhe excavation area
a in Pava (Siena, Italy) surveyed
s
withh UAV imagess for
voluume excavatioon computatioon and GIS appplications (a). The derived DSM shown as shaded (b) and
teextured mode (c) and the prroduced orthoo-image (d) [75]. If multi-teemporal imagees are availablle,
D
DSM
differencces can be com
mputed for vo
olume exactionn estimation (e)
0.023 m in height.
h
The derived
d
DSMss (Fig. 6b, c) were
used within the Pavas GIS
G to produuce vector laayers,
ortho-imagess (Fig. 6d) annd to check thhe advances inn the
excavation or the excavation volumes (F
Fig. 6e).
Urban areass
An UAV plaatform can bee used to survvey small urbaan or
heritage areaa, when natioonal regulationn allows doinng it,
81
3D MODELING
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d
e
Figure 7. A mosaic ovver an urban arrea in Bandunng, Indonesia (a).
( Visualizattion of the bunndle adjustmeent results
(b) of
o the large UA
AV block (ca 270 images) and
a a close view of the prodduced DSM oover the urban area,
show
wn as point clloud (c, d) and
d shaded modde (e)
complexity of
o the surveyeed area. The quality
q
of achiieved
point clouds is usually very high (up too few centimeetres)
and this dataa can thus bee used for fuurther analysiss and
feature extracction.
In Fig. 7, a dense urban area in Banduung (Indonesiia) is
shown: the area
a was surveeyed with an electric
e
fixed-wing
RPV platform
m at an averaage height of about 150 m. Due
to weather coonditions (quiite strong wingg) and the abssence
of an auto-ppilot onboard,, the acquiredd images (ca 270,
average GSD
D is about 5 cm)
c are not perfectly aligned in
strips (Fig. 9b). After thhe bundle bloock adjustmeent, a
dense DSM
M was createed for the estimation
e
off the
population inn the surveyedd area and mapp production.
3.2.7 CONC
CLUSIONS AND
A
FUTUR
RE
DEVE
ELOPMENTS
S
The article presented ann overview of
o existing UAV
U
systems, prroblems and applicationss with partiicular
attention to the
t Geomaticcs field. The examples
e
reported
in the papper show thhe current state-of-the-ar
s
rt of
photogramm
metric UAV technologyy in diffferent
82
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
References
[1]. http://www.uvs-international.org/
December, 2012).
(last
accessed:
83
[15]. WANG W.Q.; PENG, Q.C.; CAI, J.Y. Waveformdiversity-based millimeter-wave UAV SAR remote
sensing. Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing, 2009, Vol. 47(3), pp. 691-700.
[11]. STEMPFHUBER, W.; BUCHHOLZ, M. A precise, lowcost RTK GNSS system for UAV applications. Int.
Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and
Spatial Information Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland,
2011; Vol. 38 (1/C22).
84
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
85
86
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
[71]. HIRSCHMLLER, H. Stereo processing by SemiGlobal Matching and Mutual Information. IEEE
Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine
Intelligence, 2008, Vol. 30 (2), pp. 328341.
[80]. BOLTEN A, BARETH G. Introducing a low-cost MiniUAV for Thermal- and Multispectral-Imaging. In:
Int. Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing
and Spatial Information Sciences, Melbourne
(Australia), 2012, Vol. 39(1).
87
4
REMOTE SENSING
REMOTE SENSING
4.1.1 INTRODUCTION
According to Clark et al., (1998):
Landscape archaeology is a geographical approach
whereby a region is investigated in an integrated
manner, studying sites and artefacts not in isolation,
but as aspects of living societies that once occupied
the landscape
91
1
A definition of satellite photogrammetry may be found in Slama et al.,
(1980): Satellite photogrammetry, as distinguished from conventional
aerial photogrammetry, consists of the theory and techniques of
photogrammetry where the sensor is carried on a spacecraft and the
sensors output (usually in the form of images) is utilised for the
determination of coordinates on the moon or planet being investigated.
From this definition, it is obvious that people were not openly aware of
the military use of same techniques towards our planet, Earth.
92
REMOTE SENSING
2
http://www.asprs.org/Satellite-Information/Guide-to-Land-ImagingSatellites.html / (last accessed: December 2011).
93
Figure 3. The left part displays the spectral resolution of different satellites. The right part illustrates the spectral
signature from the point of view of hyperspectral, multispectral and panchromatic images respectively
Figure 4. Illustration of the different spatial coverage or swath width (nominal values in parenthesis) (reproduced from
http://www.asprs.org/a/news/satellites/ASPRS_ DATABASE_021208.pdf Last accessed December 2011)
94
REMOTE SENSING
row
column
X ... Y 3
X ... Y 3
X iY j Z k
X iY j Z k
X iY j Z k
i 0 j 0 k 0
n1 n 2 n 3
i 0 j 0 k 0
ijk
ijk
m1 m 2 m 3
p3( X , Y , Z )
y
p 4( X , Y , Z )
(1 Z Y
(1 Z Y
p1( X , Y , Z )
x
p 2( X , Y , Z )
c
i 0 j 0 k 0
n1 n 2 n 3
ijk
d
i 0 j 0 k 0
ijk
X iY j Z k
95
Relation
Platform-related
Description of error
Platform movement (altitude, velocity)
Platform attitude (roll, pitch, yaw)
Viewing angles
Acquisition system
Sensor-related
Instrument-related
Area of interest
Time-variations or drift
Clock synchronicity
Atmosphere-related
Earth-related
Map-related
3
Chen and Lee (1992) use the term RPCs (Registration Control Points)
that is more precise. However, to avoid confusion, this term will not be
used.
96
REMOTE SENSING
97
Konecny (2003) defines remote sensing and photogrammetry according to their object of study:
Figure 5. Classical and modern geospatial information system (reproduced from Konecny, 2003)
98
REMOTE SENSING
4.1.9 SUMMARY
4.1.10 EXERCISES
ABSTRACT
The era of satellites for earth observation started in 1960s
for meteorological and military applications. The
multispectral concept helped earth observation to takeoff in other applications with Landsat in 1972. Since
then, a huge archive of image data has become available
for almost every place on Earth, and satellite imagery was
utilised in many different specialties. Today, more and
more satellites are launched with improved characteristics
and special properties according to the application market
targeted. However, there is no satellite tailor-made for
archaeological applications. This chapter will provide an
insight on the existing and future satellite image data
along with their properties, and how can the archaeologist
make the best use of them.
References
99
FRASER, C.S. and HANLEY, H.B. 2003. Bias compensation in rational functions for IKONOS satellite
imagery, Photogrammetric engineering and remote
sensing, vol. 69, No. 1, January 2003, pp. 53-57.
RICHELSON, J.T. 1999. U.S. Satellite Imagery, 19601999, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing
Book No 13. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
NSAEBB/NSAEBB13/ (Last accessed: December
2011).
100
5
GIS
GIS
5.1.1 DEFINITIONS
5.1.1.1 Geodata
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3D MODELING
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Figure 1.
1 Example off relational moodel: two tablees (here: coun
ntries and citiees) are depicteed schematicallly (top).
Attriibute names and data types are listed for each table. Th
he black arrow
w represents thhe relation exiisting
betweeen them. Datta contained inn the two tablees is presented
d in the bottom
m left, and thee result of a po
ossible
queryy in the bottom
m right. The linnk between thhe two tables is
i realized by means of the country_id co
olumns
a
(e.g..
an externally linkked table, itself containing attributes
ded structure,,
soil classes). Thaanks to their rregularly gridd
s
mapp
operrations can bee carried out bby means of so-called
algeebra: differennt maps are layered upon
n each other,,
funcctions then combine the vallues of each raster's
r
matrixx
acco
ording to som
me criteria. M
Maps can be for examplee
overrlaid to identify and comppute overlapp
ping areas, orr
statistical analyses can are carriied out on thee cell values.
Ano
other vector data
d
structure frequently ussed in GIS too
represent surfacees are TINss (Triangulatted Irregularr
Netw
works): they consist of irrregularly distrributed nodess
104
GIS
S
same planimetric position: onee for the cave floor, one forr
the cave
c
ceiling, and
a finally onne for the mou
untain surfacee
on to
op of the cavee.
A po
ossibility to store
s
3D featuures in a rasteer-like fashionn
is offered
o
by vooxels (volumeetric pixel or Volumetricc
Pictu
ure Element)): each voxeel represents the smallestt
subd
division unit of
o a volumetriic domain and
d has typicallyy
the form of a cuube or of cubboid, with a given height,,
widtth and depth. Similarly to a raster cell,, a voxel cann
storee a numeric value
v
(like a ccell in a rasterr), or a key too
an externally
e
linnked table, ittself containin
ng attributes..
Vox
xels are typicaally used to reepresent threee-dimensionall
conttinuous featuures, like forr example geological
g
orr
atmo
ospheric strataa and their chaaracteristics. Voxels
V
can bee
also used in certain appliccations to overcome thee
limittations of rassters and reprresent terrain features, i.e..
overrhangs, caves,, arches, or othher 3D featurees.
Com
mpared to the raster approaach, vector daata offer moree
chan
nces when itt comes to m
multiple dim
mensions. Thee
coorrdinates of a point
p
can be sstored either in
i 2D (e.g. x,,
y) or
o in 3D (x, y, z). It folllows that lines, polylines,,
poly
ygons and thee resulting agggregations can
c be storedd
also in a three-dim
mensional spaace. Moreoveer, vector dataa
is no
ot subject to the
t rasters lim
mitations: for any given xyy
posiition, multiplee z values can be stored in a vector-basedd
mod
del.
Som
metimes also the
t time variiable can be added to thee
threee dimensionns in spacee, resulting in a 4D
D
representation. This
T
is achievved, for exam
mple, in thatt
everry object is given
g
a timesttamp defining
g the objectss
prop
perties at a ceertain momennt. This enablles to exploree
105
106
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3D MODELING
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Figure 3.
3 Qualitative examples of different
d
interppolation algorrithms startingg from the sam
me input (left). Surface
interpolateed using an Invverse Distancee Weighting innterpolator (center) and a Spline
S
with Teension interpolator (right)
a
interppolation methhods can be classified
c
intoo
In addition,
glob
bal or local with
w regards too whether theey use all thee
avaiilable sample points to geenerate predicctions for thee
who
ole area of interest, or only a subsset of them,,
respectively. Som
me algorithm
ms with glob
bal behaviourr
inclu
ude kriging, polynomiall trend anallyses, splinee
interrpolation and finite elemennt method (FE
EM) and thesee
meth
hods can be used
u
to evaluuate and separrate trends inn
the data.
d
In case of a local appproach, the prredicted valuee
is obtained
o
insteead only from
m known poiints within a
certaain distance, whereas
w
the cooncept of distance does nott
referr strictly to the Euclideean one only
y, but moree
geneerally to neighhbourhood. Allgorithms belo
onging to thiss
classs include, for example, neaarest neighbou
ur and naturall
neig
ghbour interpoolation.
Ano
other typical GIS appliccation is rep
presented byy
netw
work analysis,, which is bassed on the graaph theory. A
grap
ph is a mathem
matical structuure where relattions betweenn
objeects are modeelled pair wisse. Topologiccally, a graphh
conssists of nodes (also called vertices), and edgess
conn
necting pairss of verticess. In a GIS
S, it is bestt
impllemented in thhe vector moddel, where po
oints representt
the nodes
n
and linees represent thhe edges of a graph. Once,,
for example,
e
a sttreet network is modelled according
a
thee
these criteria, problems can be solved such as thee
com
mputation of thhe shortest paath between tw
wo nodes, or,,
giveen for examplle a list of cities (nodes) and
a their pairr
wisee distances (eddges), the com
mputation of shortest routee
that visits each city exactly once (this is also calledd
trav
velling salesm
man problem). An examplle is given inn
Figu
ure 4.
5.1.2
2.4 Data visualisationand map generallisation
Onee of the fields where
w
geograp
aphical inform
mation systemss
havee always founnd great application is carrtography, i.e..
the process
p
of designing and pproducing map
ps to visuallyy
represent spatiall data and to help ex
xploring andd
undeerstanding thhe results oof analysis. Geodata aree
geneerally stackedd as thematic layers, and each layer iss
form
matted using styles
s
that deffine the appeearance of thee
dataa in terms of colours,
c
symbbols, etc. Rastter and vectorr
dataa can be repreesented at thee same time or
o selectively..
Morreover, legendds, scale bars, and north-arrrows can alsoo
be added.
a
The output
o
maps are typically on paper orr
Geostatisticaal interpolatioon methods usse both mathhematical and staatistical methoods, in order to predict values
and their prrobabilistic esstimates of the
t quality off the
interpolationn. These estim
mates are obbtained usingg the
spatial autocoorrelation amoong data points.
108
GIS
Figure 4. Examples of network analyses. A road network (upper left), in which 5 possible destinations are represented
by black dots, can be represented according to the average speed typical for each roadway (upper right), where
decreasing average speeds are represented in dark green, light green, yellow, orange and red, respectively.
The shortest route, considering distance, connecting all 5 destinations is depicted in blue (bottom left),
while the shortest route, in terms of time, is depicted in violet (bottom right).
These examples are based on the Spearfish dataset available for Grass GIS
109
3D MODELING
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Serv
vices (WMS),, Web Featuree Services (W
WFS) or Webb
Cov
verage Servicees (WCS). Tooday the speccifications aree
defin
ned and maintained
m
byy the Open
n Geospatiall
Con
nsortium (O
OGC), an international standardss
orgaanisation, which
w
encourrages develo
opment andd
impllementation of
o open standaards for geosp
patial contentt
and services, GIS data processiing and data sh
haring.
A Web
W Map Service is implem
mented whenev
ver geodata iss
to bee delivered (sserved) in form
m of georeferrenced imagess
overr the Interneet. These imaages correspo
ond to mapss
geneerated by a map server, which retriev
ves data, forr
exam
mple, from a spatial databbase and send
d them to thee
clien
nt application for visualisattion. During pan
p and zoom
m
operrations, WMS
S requests ggenerate map
p images byy
meaans of a varietyy of raster renndering processses, the mostt
com
mmon being geenerally calledd resampling, interpolation,,
and down-sampliing. WMS is a widely su
upported openn
standard for mapss and GIS datta accessed viia the Internett
and loaded into client side G
GIS software,, however itss
limittation consistss mainly in thhe impossibilitty for the userr
to ed
dit or spatiallyy analyse the sserved imagess.
In case
c
of a Webb Feature Seervice, geodatta are insteadd
serv
ved encoded in the XML
L-based GML
L (Geographyy
Marrkup Languagge) format (but other formats likee
shap
pefiles can bee employed), which allowss every singlee
geog
graphic featuure to be trransmitted in
ndependently,,
querried and analyysed. Essentially, GML passses data forthh
and back betweeen a Web Feature Server and a client..
Whiile a WMS seerves a static m
map image aas is, a WFS
S
can be
b thought to serve the souurce code off the map.
In general, web
w mapping services
s
facilittate distributioon of
generated maps
m
throughh web browssers, followinng a
classical clieent-server struucture, accordding to whichh the
user perform
ms a query onn certain dataa (spatial or nonspatial) from
m his client application, running geneerally
within the web browser, and
a the resultss are providedd by a
remote serveer to the webb browser (geenerally) over the
Internet. Thiis allows to explore data dynamicallyy and
interactively,, as well as to combine different datta to
create new maps
m
accordingg to certain crriteria given by
b the
user.
A Web
W Coveragge Service is implemented
d whenever a
web-based retrievval of coveraages is needeed. The term
m
coveerage refers to any digittal geospatiall informationn
representing sppace- or tiime-varying phenomena..
Therrefore, similarrly to WMS aand WFS serv
vice instances,,
a WCS
W
allows cllients to queryy portions rem
motely storedd
geod
data accordingg to certain criteria. However, there aree
som
me differencess to WMS aand WFS. Un
nlike static
110
GIS
S
Figure 6. Example of
o Web-based geodata publiication in 3D: by means of virtual globess, as in Googlee Earth,
or in
i the case of the Heidelberrg 3D project (http://www.hheidelberg-3dd.de)
Supp
port for 3D from the maajor commerccial web mapp
serv
vers has also been
b
limited, though impro
oving. Today,,
if 3D
D support is provided, theen the focus is mostly onn
deliv
vering data with
w the third ddimension and
d on their 3D
D
visu
ualization, buut rarely on offering sup
pport for 3D
D
querries and advaanced 3D anaalyses. Within
n the OGCss
standards framew
work, supportt for 3D is similarly
s
andd
grad
dually reachinng maturity. WFS and WCS
W
servicess
prov
vide supportt for 3D vectors and
d coverages,,
respectively. In addition,
a
Geoggraphic Mark
kup Languagee
(GM
ML) and Keey Hole Markup Langu
uage (KML))
standards supportt z values, tooo. However, similar to thee
com
mmercial couunterparts, foocus is still mostly onn
deliv
vering and vissualising dataa with z values obtained byy
meaans of 2D querries.
Today, georeferenced datta can be vissualised usingg socalled virtuaal globes: suuch technologies permit a thhreedimensional exploration of
o the Earths surface, on toop of
which satelliite imagery, digital
d
elevatioon models, as well
as other geographic rasterr and vector data
d
(e.g. texttured
3D models of
o buildings and
a landmarkks) are mappeed by
direct stream
ming through thhe Internet.
Several virtuual globes exxist, both as closed and open
source soluutions. The most populaar closed soource
technologies are namely Google
G
Earth (Figure
(
6, leftt) and
Microsoft Biing Maps 3D. These platforrms have madde 3D
visualisation of geograaphical featuures known and
accessible too everyone, however, in the open soource
community, similar soluttions exist, e.g.
e
NASA World
W
Wind, ossimP
Planet, and ossgEarth.
Som
me of the aboove mentionedd problems might
m
soon bee
resolved with thee introduction of HTML 5 and the rapidd
adop
ption of modeern (i.e. releaased after 201
10) browsers..
HTM
ML 5 includdes standardissed support for WebGL,,
whicch brings pluggin-free and hhardware-acceelerated 3D too
the web,
w
implemeented right innto the browsser. All majorr
web browsers likke Safari, Chhrome, Firefox
x, Opera andd
Interrnet Explorer (only from veersion 11, releeased in 2013))
alreaady support it.
When it com
mes to accessinng and visualissing 3D geodaata in
a web browsser, the movee from desktoop GIS to the web
111
References
BRASSEL, K.E.; WEIBEL, R. 1988. A Review and
Framework of Automated Map Generalization. Int.
Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 2(3),
pp. 229-244.
112
6
VIRTUAL REALITY &
CYBERARCHAEOLOGY
115
116
6.1.2 CYBERARCHAEOLOGY
In a recent book Cyberarchaeology (Forte 2010) I have
discussed the term in the light of the last two decades of
theory and practice of digital archaeology. More
specifically, in the 90s Virtual Archaeology (Forte
1997) designed the reconstructive process for
communication and interpretation of the past. This digital
archaeology was mainly reconstructive because of a
deep involvement of computer graphics and high res
renderings in the generation of virtual worlds. The first
3D models of Rome, Tenochtitlan, Beijing, Catalhuyuk
were generally based on evocative reconstructions rather
than by a meticulous process of documentation,
validation and scientific analysis (Forte 1997). The main
outcome was a static, photorealistic model, displayed in a
screen or in a video but not interactive (Barcel, Forte et
al., 2000). The photorealism of the scene was the core of
the process with a special emphasis on computer graphics
and rendering rather than the scene interaction. It is
interesting to note that an extreme photorealism was a
way to validate the models as authentic, even if the
term can be disputable in the domain of virtuality
(Bentkowska-Kafel, Denard et al., 2011).
If in the 80s and 90s the term Virtual Reality was very
common and identifying a very specific, advanced and
new digital technology (Forte 2000), now it is more
appropriate to classify this domain as virtual realities
where the interaction is the core, but the modalities of
engagement, embodiment, interfaces and devices are
diverse and multitasking. According to a retrospective
view, VR could be considered a missing revolution, in
the sense that it didnt have a relevant social and
technological impact with very few outstanding results in
the last two decades. Internet for example was a big
revolution, not VR.
Nowadays an interesting example is represented by 3D
games: very sophisticated virtual environments, with a
superb graphic capacity to engage players in a continuous
participatory and co-evolving interaction, collaborative
communication and digital storytelling. They can expand
the digital territory they occupy according to participatory
interaction. The ultimate scope of a game in fact is the
creation of a digital land to explore and settle. In the
game context the role of simple users is transformed in
active players, that is the players themselves contribute
to the construction and evolution of the game. These new
trends of co-active embodiment and engagement have
radically changed the traditional definition of virtual
environment/virtual reality as a visualization space
peopled by predetermined models and actions. The game
is an open collaborative performance with specific goals,
roles, communication styles and progressive levels of
engagement. The narrative of the game can produce the
highest level of engagement, a gamification of the user
(Kapp 2012).
In addition, every model was static and without any interrelation with human activities or social behaviors. For
example, in the 90s the virtual models of Rome and
Pompei were just architectural empty spaces without any
trace of human activity (Cameron and Kenderdine 2010):
a sort of 3D temporal snapshot of the main buildings of
the city. At that time of digital reconstructions there was
scarce attention to reproduce dynamic models and to
include human life or activities in virtual worlds. Virtual
world were magnificent, realistic and empty digital
spaces.
It is interesting to point out that all these reconstructions
were made by collecting and translating archaeological
data from analogue format to digital: for example from
117
118
the past cannot be reconstructed but simulated. Cyberarchaeology is aimed at the simulation of the past and not
on its reconstruction: the simulation is the core of the
process. For this it is better to think about potential past,
a co-evolving subject in the human evolution generated
by cyber-interaction between worlds (Forte 2010). In
short cyberarchaeology studies the process of simulation
of the past and its relations with the present societies. Is
this a revolutionary change in theoretical archaeology?
Perhaps a new methodological phase after processualism
and post-processualism? Is cyber archaeology a change in
methodology, a change in paradigm, or a reflection of a
broader change? (Zubrow 2010). According to Ezra
Zubrow (Zubrow 2011) both processual and post
processual are now integrated into something new. Cyber
archaeology bridges the gap between scientific and
interpretational archaeology for it provides testable in
the sense of adequacy material representations of either
interpretations
or
scientific
hypotheses
or
discoveries. (Zubrow 2010). And further: if postprocessual archaeology will continue to exist it will exist
through cyber archaeology. It is in cyberarchaeology
where the interesting issues of cognition, memory,
individual difference, education etc are actually being
researched and actually being used. (Zubrow 2011).
119
120
VIRTUAL REA
ALITY & CYBER
RARCHAEOLOGY
Y
Figuure 4. Teleimm
mersion System
m in Archaeollogy (UC Merrced, UC Berkkeley)
121
3D MODELING
G IN ARCHAEOLO
OGY AND CULTU
URAL HERITAGE
E
dalone it cann
interrface and conntent (fig. 3, 6). As stand
elaborate all the models in 33D including
g GIS layers,,
metaadata and dbases (fig. 7). The digital workflow off
TeleeArch is able to integrate aall the data in
n 3D from thee
field
dwork to the collaborative
c
system with the followingg
sequ
uence:
3 format byy
Arrchaeological data can be recorded in 3D
lasser scannerss, digital phhotogrammetrry, computerr
vision, image modeling.
m
he 3D models have to be deecimated and optimized forr
Th
real time simulaations.
D models havee to be exported in obj form
mat.
3D
hey are optiimized in M
Meshlab and uploaded too
Th
TeeleArch.
Figuure 6. A Teleim
mmersive worrk session
6.1.3
3.4 3D Interaaction
TeleeArch supporrts different kinds of 3D
D interaction::
hum
man avatars (11st person intteraction), 3rd
d person andd
standalone. In 1stt person operaability the useer can interactt
like in the real world
w
within thhe space mapp
ped by stereoo
cam
meras: he/she operates
o
like a human avaatar since thee
systeem reconstruccts the body m
motion in real time (figs. 5-6). In
I this case users
u
can seee each other using naturall
interrfaces and boody languagee. In 3rd perrson the userr
interracts collaboraatively with ddata and models but withoutt
stereeo cameras. Ultimately TeleArch wo
orks also ass
standalone softw
ware, so thaat the user can interactt
indiv
vidually with models and ddata in stereo vision.
v
122
VIRTUAL REA
ALITY & CYBER
RARCHAEOLOGY
Y
bjects to perrform
object sellectors: for selecting obj
such
different actions relatedd to the local functionality,
f
as changinng object renndering style (e.g. texturee, no
texture, mesh
m
only), retrieving object metaadata,
focusing current
c
view to object priincipal planess etc.
(Forte and Kurillo 2010)).
D ARCHAEO
OLOGY AT
6.1.4 CASE STUDY: 3D
ALHUYUK
CATA
6.1.4.1 Introoduction
The project 3D Archaeeology at Cattalhuyuk (figg. 3)
started in 20010 thanks to the collaborattion with Stannford
University (A
Archaeologicaal Center) andd UC Merced with
the scope too record, document (withh different digital
technologies) and visualize in virtual reality all the phhases
of archaeoloogical excavaation. Phase I (2010) off the
project was mainly
m
orienteed to test diffferent technoloogies
during the excavation
e
(tiime of flight and optical laser
scanners). Inn phase II (20111) the UC Merced
M
team sttarted
from scratch the excavvation of a Neolithic house
h
(building 89) recording all
a the layers by time of phase
p
scanners (figg. 9), optical scanners
s
(fig. 12) and compputer
vision techniiques (image modeling,
m
figss. 10-11). In phase
p
III (2012) thhe plan is to document the entire site (East
Mound) withh the integraation of diffeerent technoloogies
(scanners, computer
c
vision, stereo cameras) annd to
continue thee digital recoording of thee Neolithic house
h
focusing on the micro-depposits which backfill the floor.
f
Final aim is to virttually museaalize the entire
e
archaeologiccal site for thhe local visittor center andd for
TeleArch, thhe Teleimmerrsive system for
f archaeologgy at
UC Merced and
a UC Berkeeley (fig. 6).
Figure
F
9. Clouuds of points bby time of phaase scanner
(Trimble FX) at atalhhyk: buildin
ng 77
123
124
Figure 12. 3D layers and microstratigraphy in the teleimmersive system (accuracy < 1 mm):
midden layers at atalhyk. This area was recorded by optical scanner (Minolta 910)
125
126
Table 1.
127
6.1.5 CONCLUSIONS
Acknowledgements
Teleimmersive archeology project was supported by
Center for Information Technology Research in the
Interest of Society (CITRIS) at University of California,
Berkeley. We also acknowledge financial support from
NSF grants 0703787 and 0724681, HP Labs, The
European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company
(EADS) for the implementation of the teleimmersion
software. We thank Ram Vasudevan and Edgar Lobaton
for the stereo reconstruction work at University of
California, Berkeley. We also thank Tony Bernardin and
Oliver Kreylos from University of California, Davis for
the implementation of the 3D video rendering.
Bibliography
BARCEL, J.A.; FORTE, M. et al. 2000. Virtual reality in
archaeology. BAR international series 843.
128
CHAMPION, E. 2011. Playing with the past. Humancomputer interaction series. London; New York,
Springer: 1 online resource (xxi, 214 p.).
129
130
131
Figure 1. The virtual museum of Scrovegni chapel (Padova, IT, 2003-): the VR installation at the Civic Museum
and the cybermap which is part of the VR application (courtesy of CNR ITABC
[M. Forte, E. Pietroni, C. Rufa] and Padova city council [D- Banzato])
132
approach would be preferable, especially in case of notexpert users and it is desirable that in the near future
webGL
could
offer
concrete
solutions
(http://www.khronos.org/webgl/).
Figure 3. 3D reconstruction parts of the project Matera: tales of a city with a view
of the same place in different historical periods (courtesy of S. Borghini, R. Carlani)
133
References
ANTINUCCI, F. 2007. The virtual museum. In: Virtual
Museums and archaeology. The contribution of the
Italian National Research Council, Ed. P. Moscati,
Archeologia e Calcolatori, Suppl. 1, 2007: 79-86.
CALORI, Luigi; CAMPORESI, Carlo; PESCARIN, Sofia
2009. Virtual Rome: a FOSS approach to Web3D,
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on
3D Web Technology (Web3D 09), 2009.
134
7
CASE STUDIES
7.1.1 INTRODUCTION
Homo sapiens is an animal symbolicum (Cassirer 1953:
44). Sculpture is a constitutive form of human artistic
expression. Indeed, the earliest preserved examples of
modern human symbol-making are not (as one might
think) the famous 2D cave paintings from Chauvet in
France (ca. 33,000 BP) but 3D sculpted statuettes from
the Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm, Germany dating to ca.
40,000 BP (Conard 2009). Practitioners of digital
archaeology must thus be prepared to handle works of
sculpture, which constitute an important class of
archaeological monument and are often essential
components of virtual environments such as temples,
houses, and settlements. The challenges of doing so relate
to two typical characteristics of ancient sculpture: its
form tends to be organic; its condition usually leaves
something to be desired.
137
See www.digitalsculpture.org.
CASE STUDIES
7.1.5 RESTORATION
16
18
http://usa.autodesk.com/maya.
www.blender.org/.
20
See http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/; Wikipedia s.v. MeshLab at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshlab (seen February 1, 2012).
19
139
See www.digitalsculpture.org/pan-nymph/index.html.
For the state and three restoration models, see www.digitalsculpture.
org/caligula/index.html.
23
www.pixologic.com/zbrush/.
24
www.pixologic.com/sculptris/.
22
CASE STUDIES
Appendix I: 28
A COMPARISON OF CASTS VS.
ORIGINALS29
The purpose of this comparison made using the marble
statue and cast (figure 2) Alexander in the Dresden
State Museums is to ascertain two things: (1) which
material is more responsive to 3D digital data capture,
marble or the plaster used in the cast; (2) how closely
does a first-generation plaster cast of a statue correspond
to original marble sculpture? In order to make this
comparison, the statues were first scanned with a FARO
ScanArm. The resulting point clouds were processed with
Polyworks and polygonal models were made.
As will be seen, these two questions are related since the
material qualities of marble turn out to be less receptive
to digitization than are those of plaster or silicon. This
can be easily seen in figure 3. Whereas the digital model
of the plaster cast renders the smooth surface of the
marble, that of the marble has a surface marred by bumps
that do not correspond to any true feature of the original.
Marble is composed primarily of calcite (a crystalline
form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3).30 As Beraldin, Godin
et al., 2001: 1 showed:
www.londoncharter.org/.
I thank David Koller for his collaboration in writing the Appendix.
30
Wikipedia, s.v. Marble sculpture, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Marble_sculpture (seen May 1, 2010).
29
31
141
See www.plastercastcollection.org/de/database.php?d=lire&id=172.
www.digitalsculpture.org/casts/felice/
34
I thank Jason Page of Direct Dimensions, Inc. for running this test and
producing the images seen in figures 4 and 5.
33
142
CASE STUDIES
Appendix II:
DIGITAL APPLICATIONS IN
ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL
HERITAGE
Bibliography
BERALDIN, J.-A.; GODIN, G. et al., 2001. An Assessment
of Laser Range Measurement on Marble Surfaces,
5th Conference on Optical 3D Measurement
Techniques, October 1-4, 2001, Vienna Austria. 8 pp.;
graphics.stanford.edu/papers/marbleassessment/marbr
e_gg_final2e_coul.pdf.
143
144
CASE STUDIES
Linking quantitative information (obtained from surveying) and qualitative information (obtained by data interpretation or by other documentary sources), analysing
and displaying it within a unique integrated platform
plays therefore a crucial role. In literature, some approaches exist to associate information to an entire building
(Herbig and Waldhusl, 1997), to 2D entities (Salonia and
Negri, 2000), to 3D objects (Knuyts et al., 2001), or
according to a model description (Dudek et al., 2003).
7.2.1 INTRODUCTION
Constant advances in the field of surveying, computing
and digital-content delivery are reshaping the approach
Cultural Heritage can be virtually accessed: thanks to
such new methodologies, not only researchers, but also
new potential users like students and tourists, are given
the chance to use a wide array of new tools to obtain
information and perform analyses with regards to art
history, architecture and archaeology.
One useful possibility is offered by 3D computersimulated models, representing for example both the
present and the hypothetical status of a structure. Such
models can be linked to heterogeneous information and
queried by means of (sometimes Web-enabled) GIS tools.
In such a way, relationships between structures, objects
and artefacts can be explored and the changes over space
and time can be analysed.
The NUBES Tempus Project [link] (MAP Gamsau Laboratory, France) is an example (De Luca et al., 2011),
where 3D models in the field of Cultural Heritage are
used for diachronic reconstructions of the past. Segmented models can also help to interpret history allowing the
assembly of sub-elements located in different places but
belonging to the same artefact or site (Kurdy et al., 2011).
145
146
CASE STUDIES
Figure 1. Different levels of detail (LoD) in the Query Arch 3D tool. Clockwise from top-left: LoD1 of a temple
with prismatic geometries, LoD2 with more detailed models (only exterior walls), LoD3 with interior walls/rooms
and some simplified reality-based elements, LoD4 with high-resolution reality-based models
147
Figure 2. Different visualization models in QueryArch3D: aerial view (a, b), walkthrough mode (b) and detail
view (d). Data can be queried according to attributes (a) or by clicking on the chosen geometry (b, c, d).
The amount of information shown is depending on the LoD: in (b), attributes about the whole temple
are shown, in (c) only a subpart of the temple, and the corresponding attributes, are shown
7.2.3 CONCLUSIONS
For of the interactive 3D visualisation and query frontend, the game engine Unity 3D, an integrated authoring
tool for creation of 3D interactive content, was adopted.
Unity allows to develop applications which can be
embedded also in a webpage. Moreover, it can be linked
to external databases and retrieve data when needed, e.g.
by means of a PHP interface between Unity and
PosgreSQL.
148
CASE STUDIES
References
149
[NUBES] http://www.map.archi.fr/nubes/NUBES_
Information_System_at_Architectural_Scale/
Tempus.html
[3DCOFORM] http://www.3d-coform.eu/
[KHRONOS] http://www.khronos.org/
[VENUS] http://www.ccrmlabs.com/
[DIGSCO] http://www.digitalsculpture.org/
[CITYGML] http://www.citygml.org
[QUERYARCH3D] http://mayaarch3d.unm.edu/
index.php
150
CASE STUDIES
7.3.1 INTRODUCTION
The exponential evolution of spatial and visual
technologies has deeply impacted archaeology as a
discipline. Technology has always been an important part
of archaeological practices, and its use has contributed to
developing methods and theories for the investigation and
analysis of archaeological sites. Instruments and tools
that are typically used to conduct field activities have
aided archaeologists from the very beginning of this
discipline. The use of these instruments and tools has
been customised over the years to improve the excavation
process.
151
Figure 1. This image presents an example of a 3D model acquired during an investigation campaign in Uppkra
(Summer 2011). The model has been realised using Agisoft Photoscan and visualised through MeshLab
152
CASE STUDIES
153
Figure 2. This image shows the three steps performed by the software (i.e., Photoscan and Agisoft) to calculate
the 3D model for the rectangular area excavated in 2011 during the investigation of a Neolithic grave
in Uppkra: (a) camera position calculations, (b) geometry creation, and (c) map projection
154
CASE STUDIESS
Figure 3. This image shhows the inveestigation areaa that was seleected in 2010 to
t test the effiiciency of the Computer
Vision techhniques duringg an archaeoloogical excavattion in Uppkrra. The upper part of the im
mage presents (A) a model
created durring the excavvation overlappped with the graphic
g
docum
mentation creaated during thee investigation
n campaign.
T lower partt of the image presents (B) an
The
a example off models orgaanised in a tem
mporal sequencce
Figgure 4. This im
mage shows tw
wo models of the excavatio
on that were crreated at differrent times durring
the investigationn campaign. In
I the first moodel, (a) the cirrcular ditch iss visible only iin the Northw
west
rectangular areea. The secondd model show
ws (b) how the results of thee archaeological investigatio
on
allow
wed for the disscovery of a ditch
d
that was in the Southeaast rectangulaar area
155
3D MODELING
G IN ARCHAEOLO
OGY AND CULTU
URAL HERITAGE
E
How
wever, this soolution was not available when
w
the lastt
expeeriment was performed.
p
t
goal, it was
w necessaryy to develop a 3D
To achieve this
model beforee the field investigation proogressed. Althhough
Computer Vision
V
techniqques create high-resolution
h
n 3D
models, we decided to maintain
m
strictt control oveer the
number of poolygons used to describe eaach file. Thereefore,
we establisheed guidelines to develop models
m
that equuated
resolution annd usability, meaning
m
that the
t files should be
easy to mannage and stoore. In fact, the limited space
s
resources thaat often charaacterise archaaeological archhives
could have prevented
p
the storage of thhe 3D models with
the rest of thhe documentattion, which would have ressulted
in the loss off these modelss in the future..
7.3.4
4 3D MODELS AND GIS
S
After establlishing the guidelines
g
foor processingg the
models, we began
b
a dailyy acquisition of
o the site by georeferencing the
t 3D modells with the sitte grid. During the
excavation, staff
s
memberss primarily ussed the 3D filles to
discuss issuees regarding thhe on-going excavation,
e
such as
the horizonttal relations among
a
differrent layers orr the
vertical proggression of thhe site stratiggraphy. Moreover,
different virttual perspectivves and anglees were utiliseed to
review the complex
c
metaamorphos is of
o the site, which
w
would have been
b
impossibble to do in thhe real life. (Fiig. 5)
(Callieri et al., 2011).
156
CASE STUDIES
Figure 6. This image shows the integration of the 3D models into the GIS
7.3.5 CONCLUSION
This paper presents the advantages of incorporating threedimensional models into current archaeological recording
systems. The results supported the combination of 3D
files with the current documentation system, as this
approach would represent a more informative tool for the
description of the excavation process. Additionally, the
results of our experiments indicate that the appropriate
integration of 3D models within the time frame of field
activities exponentially increases the perception of the
archaeological relations that characterize the on-going
investigation by providing a 3D temporal reference of the
actions performed on the site.
Abstract
In recent decades, the development of technology that
aids in documenting, analysing and communicating
information regarding archaeological sites has affected
157
References
ALDENDERFER, M. 1996. Introduction. Aldenderfer M.
and Maschner H.D.G. (eds): Antropology, space, and
geographic information system. Oxford University
Press, Oxford, pp. 3-18.
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/
http://www.agisoft.ru/
http://www.esri.com/
158